Once Upon A Zombie Apocalypse
by cfarris13506
Summary: The citizens of Storybrooke have been safe from the horrible apocalypse around them, but all of that will change when Carol Peletier and a few others come to Storybrooke.
1. Chapter 1 - Carol

"Carol..."

It was Andrew. Andrew was a twenty-four year old man with dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes. He had found Carol in one of her worst times.

"Carol!"

Carol was thirty-two and had very short grayish hair. She was sometimes mistaken to be older because of her elderly appearance, however she just had a very stressful life to this point. Four months ago she was kicked out of her group by a man named Rick Grimes. She spent a whole month wandering and trying to survive in this new, broken world. Then she found a new group. There were eight of them and they were very well off, with a large excess of food and weapons. However, a horde of walkers came through and killed everyone except for Carol and Andrew. They were able to escape, but all of their supplies were lost.

"Carol! Wake up! Get up now, we have to go!" Andrew was next to Carol, shaking her awake.

"Andrew... what is it?" Carol asked, still groggy from the long journey northward.

"There are bandits by the camp," Andrew said, clearly terrified.

"Get your gun," Carol responded.

"Shouldn't we try to hide and stay quiet. They might not see the camp."

"They'll see it and they'll come right in here. Get your gun and follow my lead."

"But-"

"I'm not losing everything! Not again! Let's go!"

Carol reached over and grabbed her gun, a rifle that she took from another bandit who was stupid enough to try to steal from her. The two crept out of their tent and looked to the woods. There were three of them. All large and muscular men that were carrying shotguns.

Carol sneaked to a nearby tree and took cover. She motioned for Andrew to go behind the tent and use it for cover.

Carol liked Andrew and thought that he was a really nice guy, but sometimes she just considered him dead weight who couldn't hold his own. However, Carol was willing to keep him around because he reminded her of someone that she knew in her first group. One of the first men that she truly loved. Not one day passed that Carol didn't think about this man and she felt terrible that she didn't get to say goodbye.

Carol looked around the tree and pointed her gun at one of the bandits. Just as she was about to shoot, another one came up to them.

"Hey, man," he said to one of the bandits.

"Hey. How'd it go?" A blonde bandit said.

"Good. Got 'em both. Todd's takin 'em up to Maine as we speak."

"Perfect. Make sure the lil' blonde hottie goes up for trade."

"What do we do with Merle's brother?"

Merle? _His_ brother's name was Merle. Could it be Daryl? If the bandits took Daryl, Carol would find him. She had to know.

Carol peeked out from around the tree and aimed at one of the bandits that wasn't in the conversation. She exhaled deeply and pulled the trigger. She hit him right between the eyes and he dropped dead.

"Hey!"

"Who's there?"

The remaining three bandits were in disarray. Carol grabbed a stone that was next to her and hurled it away from the camp. It made a loud sound when it hit the ground and caught the bandits' attention.

"There he is!" The bandits fired their guns where the stone landed.

Carol smirked confidently. These bandits were not very intelligent. She could kill them all with ease. She waited for them to walk towards where the stone landed and fired her rifle once more. The blonde bandit crumbled onto the ground, breaking a stick under his weight.

"Hey! You better come out! We ain't playin' around!", one of the bandits shouted.

Carol took her knife out of the sheath. She wanted to leave the bandit who could have been talking about Daryl live long enough to interrogate him. The other one would die. She motioned for Andrew to sneak behind a nearby tree. He could act as a distraction to seperate the two bandits.

There wasn't much time before walkers would start closing in because of the gunshots.

Andrew ran to the tree and tapped it with his gun four times. The bandits looked but didn't approach.

"Do it again," Carol whispered. She had to get one to walk over there.

Andrew tapped on the tree several more times. They were beginning to hear the moans of the walkers.

"We gotta go. The walkers will keep them busy," Andrew whispered.

"We can't! I need to talk to the tall one," Carol whispered back, determined to know what they did with Daryl.

"Fine," Andrew said. He peered around the tree and fired his rifle.

"No!" Carol yelled.

The shorter bandit fell to the ground. The moans from the walkers got louder. They were everywhere, surrounding the camp.

Carol grasped her knife and dashed toward the tall bandit. She pulled her arms around his neck and held her knife to his throat.

"Where is he?!" she demanded.

"What the hell are you doin'?! Get off!" the bandit yelled back.

"Carol! They're getting close!" Andrew yelled.

"Daryl! Where is he?! You said you had Merle's brother! Where did you take him?!" Carol demanded more viciously.

"You're crazy! I ain't gonna talk! You ain't gonna kill me, I got the information you want!" the bandit said, trying to outsmart her.

"Oh really. Look, here's how this is gonna work. You're going to tell me what I want to know and you can run for your life. However, if you don't tell me, you're getting thrown to those walkers," Carol proposed.

"Carol, stop! We need to go now!" Andrew pleaded.

"Tell me where he is! Tell me NOW!" Carol screamed.

"OKAY! SOME OF MY BUDDIES ARE TAKING HIM TO A SMALL TOWN IN MAINE! THEY'RE GOING TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH HIM THERE! I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW NOTHIN' ELSE! JUST LET ME GO!" the bandit began screaming.

Carol let go of the bandit and he stumbled forward. The three of them were surrounded by walkers. They were coming from every side and there was nowhere to run.

"What do we do?" Andrew asked, fearing the answer.

The three just stared for a few seconds. They looked around for possible routes or a place to run but all they saw were decomposed bodies. They were being pushed until they were back-to-back-to-back. In a desperate move, Carol swung her knife at the bandit's leg.

"AAAAGGGHHHH!" he screamed in pain.

Carol knew that this was the only way. They had to use him as walker bait and then run for their lives. She thrusted her knife into his leg one more time to make sure he couldn't run.

"UUUUUNNNNGGGGHHHHH! YOU BITCH! Y-YOU-YOU SAID YOU WOULD LET ME RUN!" The bandit continued to scream in pain and shock.

"Opening! Go!" Carol directed Andrew to an opening that the walkers created as they dove after the bandit's still screaming body.

They ran through the opening and into the woods. They continued running through the woods, hearing the bandit screaming as he was being torn apart in the background. After a while they stopped running, exhausted from the experience they just had.

"You said you would let him live," Andrew stated.

"There was no other way," Carol answered.

"There had to have been! We-we could've...we could've..."

"Let me know when you come up with another way."

"Fine. Maybe you're right. It just feels wrong."

Carol opened her mouth to respond but was distracted by the sound of movement in a nearby bush.

"Come out!" she demanded.

The bush continued to rustle until a young girl crawled out.

"Wh-what?" Carol asked, puzzled.

Another blonde little girl ran forward and stood beside the other.

"...Carol?" she said.

"Lizzie! Mika!"


	2. Chapter 2 - Storybrooke

Emma Swan was having very strange nightmares. But then again, who wouldn't be after seeing everything that Emma had seen. Just yesterday she saw her step-grandmother be killed by her mother. Before that she fought a dragon, climbed a beanstalk, used magic for the first time, and found out that her and her family were fairy tale characters. Perfect.

Emma woke up to the sound of footsteps and crying. The crying was nothing new but the slow footsteps were extremely worrying, especially now that Regina had an even bigger bone to pick with Mary Margaret. She picked up her gun for protection and slowly walked downstairs.

She peered around the corner and saw Henry sitting on the floor next to Mary Margaret's bed.

"Henry!" Emma whispered.

"Mary Margaret is still upset. What happened to her?" Henry asked.

"Come in the kitchen. We can talk there."

Emma led Henry into the kitchen and started to make him some pancakes.

"Your grandmother is a great woman, Henry," Emma began.

"But why is she so sad?"

"She's going through a lot right now. You know how Cora was going to come here and hurt all of us?"

"Yeah. But you stopped her. You sent her back to the Enchanted Forest!"

"No. No, we didn't"

"What did you do to her then?"

"We killed her, Henry. Mary Margaret...killed her."

Emma was beginning to feel herself tear up at thinking of that moment again. Mary Margaret left to find Cora's heart and used wax from a magical candle that would trade Cora's life for Mr. Gold's. When Mary Margaret returned, she put Cora's heart back in and died seconds later. Ever since then, Mary Margaret has been depressed and constantly thinking about what she did.

"But that's not possible. Mary Margaret can't have killed her! Snow White is supposed to have the purest heart of everyone from the Enchanted Forest!"

"I'm sorry, Henry. It had to be done though. Cora was going to hurt everyone, including you, and no one was going to let that happen."

Henry was visibly hurt by hearing all of this. It caused Emma a lot of pain to see him so sad and disappointed about what his grandmother had done.

"How about you finish your breakfast and get dressed so I can take you to hang out with Neil today?" Emma asked.

"Okay," Henry said, still upset.

Then, there was a loud knock on the door.

"Go upstairs, Henry. Get dressed," Emma commanded.

Henry stood up and began walking upstairs. There was another loud knock on the door.

Emma opened the door. A tall man with dark hair and dark robes stood there.

"Hook," Emma stated.

"Emma. How are you?" Hook asked innocently.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well then. I had a question for you."

"What is it?"

"I was wondering where your boyfriend is staying."

"I don't have a boyfriend."

"Baelfire. Neil. Whatever you call him, I know he's staying in Storybrooke and I would like to chat with him."

"Find him yourself."

Emma began to close the door, but Hook stopped it.

"Wait," he said.

"What else do you want?"

"I would like to know how Cora died."

"Why do you need to know that?"

"Cora was my friend, Emma. I want to know how she died. Please."

"A magical candle. The wax could trade lives. It traded Cora's life for Mr. Gold's. Now goodbye."

Emma closed the door. Hook walked away from the house and began walking down the sidewalk. He took out his cell phone.

"How in the bloody hell does this thing work?" he muttered to himself as he walked.

He pressed a few buttons and tried putting it to his ear a few times. It finally started working. The person on the other end picked up.

"You there, Regina?" he asked, still confused.

...

"Okay good. These cell phones are terrible. No wonder we didn't bother with them in the Enchanted Forest. Anyways, Mary Margaret is in the house still crying her life away. And Cora died from a black magic candle that with no doubt came from the crocodile himself. It traded Cora's life in order to save his."

...

"Yes. She definitely heard me talking to Emma. No doubt she'll come seek you out to 'clear her name' or something."

...

"Yes. Don't worry, it's going to work out fine. Now how the hell do I turn this off?"

...

"Ah, yes, I see it. See you later then."

Hook hung up the phone and continued walking down the sidewalk.

Back at Emma's house, Henry was coming downstairs. He got dressed and was ready to be taken to see his father.

"Are you ready?" Emma asked.

"Yeah," Henry answered, still sad about Mary Margaret but excited to see his dad again.

"Okay. Let me just go tell Mary Margaret."

Emma walked over to Mary Margaret's room and began to speak.

"Mary Margaret!" Emma shouted.

Mary Margaret was gone and the bedroom window was open.

"MARY MARGARET!"


	3. Chapter 3 - Reunited

"Mika? Lizzie? What are you guys doing here?" Carol asked, astonished by seeing these two children that she had raised and loved four months ago.

"Carol!" Mika dashed straight into Carol's arms almost in tears with happiness and excitement.

"What are you doing here? Why are you out here by yourselves?" Carol asked, somewhat fearing the answer.

"The prison got attacked by a big group. They killed a lot of people. We're with Tyreese and Judith. We don't know if anyone else got out," Mika cried, reliving the horrible attack that took place three months ago.

"Shhh...It's gonna be fine. You said you two are with Tyreese? Where is he right now?"

It was like the past was coming back to slap Carol in the face. The man who loved the woman that Carol murdered was alive. He was with all of the children that Carol loved. Carol did not want to see Tyreese again. She didn't know if Tyreese knew it was Carol who murdered Karen, but the risk was too large. After all, she didn't leave her frinedship with Rick on good terms. However, she could not abandon Lizzie, Mika, and Judith again. If Tyreese knew and wished to hurt Carol, then so be it.

"He told us to go collect berries while he scouted up the train tracks."

"Okay. Oh," Carol started, suddenly remembering Andrew, "this is my friend, Andrew."

"Hey there," Andrew said.

Mika waved at Andrew shyly.

Carol looked up and saw Lizzie still standing by the bush just looking at Carol. She had a very distant and nervous look on her face, which was not like Lizzie at all. Carol knew that there was something wrong.

"And how are you, Lizzie?" Carol asked.

Lizzie stared for a moment and then responded, "Good."

Carol chose to just dismiss the issue for the time being. However, at that moment she heard the sound of crying. Carol knew that cry. It was the cry that belonged to Judtih, which meant that Tyreese is close.

"Guys!" Tyreese yelled.

"Over here!" Mika yelled back.

Carol braced herself. If Tyreese knew about what Carol did, he would surely kill her. She gripped her gun and exhaled deeply.

Tyreese pushed through the bush.

"There you ar-" Tyreese looked up and noticed Carol, "Carol?"

"Hey, Tyreese," Carol answered.

Tyreese walked over to Carol and hugged her. Carol was relieved that Tyreese didn't know about what happened with Karen.

"How have you been? We-we thought you were dead when you didn't come back with Rick."

"I...stayed out and kept scrounging for medicine. What ever happened with that? The disease?"

"Hershel started taking care of the sick. He saved a lot of people from dying. Ugh, he was such a good man. The prison got attacked three months ago by the governor, he had Hershel hostage and...he killed him."

"That's horrible. He'll be remembered though as a great man. Oh god, his daughters must have been in terrible condition."

"Yeah, they were. We don't know where they are now though. They could be with him in Heaven."

Carol remembered what the bandit said about a blonde girl when he was talking about Daryl. Could the blonde girl have been Beth? Carol decided to let Tyreese into her plan.

"Beth could be alive. And I think I know where she is," Carol stated.

"What do you mean? How do you know?" Tyreese asked.

"There were some bandits a ways back there. They were talking about having a blonde girl and Merle's brother at some place in Maine. Me and my friend, Andrew, were heading north to find them."

"Wow, I-I mean that's crazy. Beth and Daryl are both alive. We'll go with you."

"No, Tyreese, you don't have to."

"If there are survivors from the prison out there, then I want to find them! We were heading up north anyway. We thought that it might not be as bad there."

"Okay. We should start going right now then. The train tracks over here should lead us straight up north."

Carol went through the bush and walked up the steep hill that had the train tracks on top. The group followed behind her. Andrew ran up beside her.

"Carol?" he asked.

"I'm sorry. It's going to be dangerous. You don't have to come with us if you don't want to."

"No, I will. But, can we trust him?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Carol began whispering, "Remember how I told you I was kicked out of a group four months ago?"

"Yeah, of course."

"I murdered someone. His girlfriend. I told one someone while we were out scrounging for medicine and he gave me supplies and told me to leave."

"But...why?"

"We had a disease outbreak at our camp. It was highly lethal and we didn't know how to cure it. She had it along with another guy and it was a desperate situation. They had to die before they could spread it. Little did I know, it was too late and it already spread across the whole camp."

"Wow. I-I understand where you were coming from but...it's hard to imagine."

"It had to be done. And no one else was stepping up."

Andrew nodded and continued walking forward.

Carol looked back and saw Lizzie walking behind her. She still had that same distant look on her face.

"Lizzie?" Carol called out to her.

Lizzie walked faster and came up beside Carol, "Yes?"

"Are you okay?" Carol asked, worried about her.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay. You look like something's bothering you."

"My parents are dead."

Carol was shocked by how bluntly Lizzie was speaking.

"I thought you were over that already. That was a long time ago, Lizzie."

"It's hard to forget sitting next to your father as he is covered in blood, whispering out his final words. Telling you that he loves you. And you know that in minutes he's going to bacome one of those terrible things that rip you apart and kill everything that you love. The only way to stop that from happening is to blow his brains out and paint the bed with red."

This made Carol very frightened. She knew that something was horribly wrong with Lizzie. This kind of speaking was not like her at all.

"I...um...I thought you liked the walkers. You know you gave them names and thought about what their lives were like before they turned."

"That was before they tried to kill me. Now I know that they're just monsters and they all need to die. That was what you always tried to teach me, right?"

"Well...something along those lines..." Carol said, astonished by what she was hearing.

"I listen to all of your advice now. I know how to use a knife and how to find food. I know that you have to attack the brains of the walkers and I know how to skin and clean a rabbit for cooking."

Carol was impressed. Still slightly scared of what was happening to Lizzie, but very proud that Lizzie was learning how to survive.

"Okay. Well...take care of yourself, Lizzie. Let me know if you ever need to talk."

Carol thought about what was happening. She was getting reunited with her old group. She had hoped that this time things would go right and her second chance with this group would not be another failure.


	4. Chapter 4 - Strange Book

Emma was in a panic. What if Regina took Mary Margaret? She would kill her for sure. She would steal her heart and crush it into dust without a second thought. Emma ran back to Henry to tell him the news.

"Henry! Mary Margaret's gone!" She shouted.

"What happened to her?" he asked curiously.

Emma didn't want to tell Henry that his mother had taken her before she knew what happened for sure. She didn't want Henry to think is mother is some evil, heartless woman, even though Emma believed that those words describe Regina quite well.

"I don't know. But I'm gonna look for her. She couldn't have gotten far."

"I'll come with you!"

"No! Take your bike to the station and get David. Tell him what's going on. I'll be back later."

Emma charged out the door and got in her car. She knew that there was only one place where Mary Margaret could be. Regina's house.

Regina was trying to relax. She had so many things going through her head. The last few days had turned her world upside down. She had finally been reunited with her mother only to have her ripped away from the earth by that woman. The woman who had made Regina's life miserable and ruined her chance at true love and a good life.

Snow White. Her name was like a plauge on Regina's life. The only thing Regina truly wanted at the moment was to hold Snow's heart in her hand and crush it until it became nothing more than dust blowing in the wind. Her pure red heart.

Oh, wait. Snow's heart would have a black spot from the black magic that she used to kill Cora. Regina would make her stare into that black spot before she crushed the heart. Make it the last thing Snow would ever see.

That's when the doorbell rang. Regina quickly peered out the window to see who would possibly want to visit her and was delighted by the person she saw.

Snow White. Broken. Vulnerable.

Four days had passed since Carol was reunited with her old group. They had entered Maine a few hours ago. It was cold there. Their plan seemed to be working though. There were less walkers up there. The cold air ravaged the walker's bodies and made some unable to move.

Carol awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of a walker. It's moan was broken as if it was struggling. She decided to go find it and put it out of it's misery. She looked over at where her group slept. Andrew, Mika, Tyreese. Where was Lizzie? Carol started to get worried. She grabbed her hunting knife and jogged to where the moans came from.

She came to a small clearing in the woods and saw a walker laying on the ground with a young girl sitting next to him.

"Lizzie?"

The girl looked up and started looking worried. It was Lizzie. Carol ran over to her.

"What are you doing out here? Get away from him! He's dangerous!"

Lizzie stood up and backed away from the walker.

"No, no, no it's not what you think! I'm helping him!"

"The only thing your doing is endangering yourself! You need to think, Lizzie!"

"I am thinking! He can barely move! He's frostbitten and I thought I could help him! He's my friend! I have to help him!"

"I thought you were done with this! They are not people, Lizzie! They want to kill you!"

"Yes, they are! They all had a life before this! They don't deserve what we do to them! How would you like it if you turned and I killed you!? What if I killed you!? TELL ME, WHAT IF I KILLED YOU!?"

Carol was terrified. Lizzie wasn't right. She wasn't stable. Carol had to get Lizzie somewhere fast. Somewhere where they could all settle down away from the walkers and live together in peace. It would hopefully help Lizzie's state of mind.

"Okay. Lizzie, I want you to calm down. Just look at those flowers and count to three," Carol said slowly as she backed away.

Lizzie turned to the flowers to her right and relaxed her shoulders, "One...two...three..."

"Okay, okay, that's good. Now come follow me back to the camp and I'll tell you a story and you can get some rest," Carol pleaded slowly.

Lizzie's face lit up, "Oh! I have a story for you!"

Lizzie picked up a brown book next to her. It was a large book with gold letters on the front. The letters were written in a very fancy print. The letters spelled out the phrase, "Once Upon A Time"


End file.
